GOP leaders ready to quell states’ food stamp revolt

Republican leaders are threatening to take congressional action to stop state governors from flouting the food stamp cuts contained in the 2014 farm bill.

The governors of at least six states — New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Montana and Oregon — have now taken measures to protect more than a combined $800 million in annual Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, and more states are expected to follow suit. Their actions threaten — over time — to wipe out the more than $8 billion in cuts over 10 years to the food stamp program that were just passed by Congress as part of the 2014 farm bill.

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“Since the passage of the farm bill, states have found ways to cheat, once again, on signing up people for food stamps,” Speaker of the House John Boehner told reporters Thursday. “And so I would hope that the House would act to try to stop this cheating and this fraud from continuing.”

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), one of the 2014 farm bill’s four principal architects, warned: “I suspect that this will create a call for action from members of the House and … these governors now will cause a new set of hearings, a new set of bills, a new set of appropriations amendments.”

Lucas likened the governors’ actions at the center of the controversy to mining dollars from the U.S. Treasury.

“What becomes of it, I do not know, but if they’re going to try to keep mining, then this becomes a live issue,” he said.

In the ramp up to passing the farm bill early last month, the House of Representatives initially put forth a bill that would have cut food stamps by $40 billion over 10 years, but the four principal negotiators — Lucas and Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) — agreed, in conference, to a compromise that included a smaller — yet substantial reduction.

Their solution: Raise the threshold for participation in a program — known as “heat and eat” — that allows states to qualify households for as much as $90 per month in additional food stamp benefits by providing them with benefits, no matter how small, from the federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

At least 17 states took advantage of the allowance SNAP makes for matching qualifications, providing their residents with as little as $1 per month in federal heating assistance to also qualify them for the additional food stamps, a Government Accountability Office report found. However, by simply requiring states to provide more than $20 in LIHEAP assistance in order to qualify a household for the added SNAP benefits, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the farm bill’s four principals could cut food stamp spending by more than $8 billion over 10 years.

The farm bill’s four principal negotiators grabbed the CBO estimate and ran. They included the change in the farm bill conference report, which was then passed by the full House and Senate.